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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anti-equality activists have submitted 8,500 signatures in an attempt to qualify for a ballot measure in Anchorage, Alaska, aimed at gutting protections for transgender residents and visitors in the city’s non-discrimination ordinance. The city clerk must verify that at least 5,753 signatures are from registered Anchorage voters in order for the discriminatory initiative to be placed on the April 3, 2018, mayoral ballot.

“Anti-equality activists are hell-bent on reversing the progress made for LGBTQ equality in Anchorage and across the country,” said HRC Senior Regional Field Director Hope Wisneski. “This shameful ballot measure would damage Anchorage’s reputation, undermine civil rights, and enshrine discrimination against transgender people into law. HRC is committed to working closely with the Fair Anchorage coalition in fighting tooth and nail to stop this assault on fairness and equality and ensuring Anchorage remains a safe and welcoming place for everyone.”

The ballot measure aims to bar the Municipality of Anchorage from recognizing the existence of transgender people by defining sex for all municipal purposes as an “immutable biological condition” as determined at birth. It would also repeal the city’s existing protections ensuring that transgender people have equal access to facilities consistent with their gender identity in their workplace and public spaces.

As part of the Fair Anchorage coalition, HRC is working with the ACLU of Alaska, Alaskans Together for Equality, Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii, Christians for Equality, The Pride Foundation, and Identity Inc. in working to defeat the ballot measure.

Earlier this month, a similar attempt in the state of Washington was defeated, where, for the second year in a row, an anti-LGBTQ campaign to rollback non-discrimination protections for transgender people failed to turn in enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.